Bruce Hyde credits Tri-C professors for his successful academic career

May 05, 2017

Bruce Hyde will not be hard to miss when he walks across the stage at the Cuyahoga Community College commencement ceremonies this month. Various pins, medals and the yellow Phi Theta Kappa honors stole will adorn his graduation gown.

The 34-year-old Parma resident was one of seven Tri-C students named to the All-Ohio Community College Academic Team, which recognizes student excellence in academics, leadership and community service. Hyde made first team.

A PTK member since November 2014, Hyde is the chapter vice president of fellowship for the Chi Omega chapter and serves as vice president for the the Ohio region vice president. He has represented Tri-C at various PTK conferences throughout Ohio and in Washington, D.C.

The top scholar credits PTK Chapter Advisoer Mary Hovanec for pushing him out of his comfort zone to try public speaking and event planning. ”I would not be the leader on campus or in my career that I am today without this amazing person,” he said.

Hyde is also a Coca-Cola Community College Academic Team Gold Scholar, a John Kesler Scholar and a PTK Guistwhite Scholar. Hyde said it was a great honor to receive the Guistwhite Scholarship because only 15 PTK applicants out of 1,800 nationwide receive it.

Hyde credits his Western Campus instructors for helping him earn his long list of academic accolades. He honed his writing skills in professor Ryan Rodriguez’s honors English class, developing skills that helped him complete his scholarship applications.

He also noted the positive influence of his web design instructor, Rich Robinkoff.

“I tend to be the annoying student who asks a lot of questions, many times outside the scope of the course,” Hyde said. “Professor Robinkoff was my HTML/Javascript instructor for my first web design class. He was able to answer all of my crazy questions, but the one thing he provided that was more valuable than knowledge was his encouragement and guidance.”

In the fall, Hyde plans to transfer to Tiffin University to study business while continuing to take classes at Tri-C through an academic partnership between the schools. After earning his bachelor’s degree at Tiffin, he intends to pursue a master’s degree while continuing his career in information services at MetroHealth System in information services, supporting the health care provider’s electronic medical record application.

“There are boundless opportunities at a community college if students are willing to take them,” Hyde said. “Tri-C has so many programs and clubs for anything you would want to do.”

Throughout the month, we will be highlighting members of this spring's Tri-C graduating class. Click here to read more of their stories.